Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Facebook Wedding Photos Lead to Polygamy Arrest for Michigan Man

by Amar Toor on March 18, 2011 at 01:15 PM

richard leon barton, jr.Police in Michigan have arrested a man on charges of polygamy after discovering some incriminating wedding photos on Facebook.

In 2004, 34-year-old Richard Leon Barton, Jr. reportedly married a Rhode Island woman, whom he'd met online. Not long after their wedding, Barton mysteriously de-friended his new bride on Facebook, and soon vanished from her life altogether. Though the two had discussed getting a divorce prior to his disappearance, neither Barton nor his wife ever filed the requisite paperwork.

Out of curiosity, the abandoned woman decided to do some investigative research on Facebook, where she soon discovered photos from Barton's second wedding last July. As it turns out, the man originally disappeared because he'd been arrested for violating his parole, and was sent to jail. He was released in 2009, and eventually moved to Grand Rapids, where he met his second wife.

The woman in Rhode Island quickly contacted the police, who arrested the bigamist in Michigan. He now faces a maximum of four years in prison, where he'll probably have plenty of time to think about changing his Facebook privacy settings.

Tags: arrest, bigamist, crime, facebook, michigan, photos, police, polygamy, richard leon barton, RichardLeonBarton, SocialNetworking, top, Web, wedding

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular